Tag Archives: President Nixon

Frost/Nixon about one of the most controversial political issues in the US involving President Richard Nixon & David Frost. (Played by Frank Langella & Michael Sheen). Involving burglary, lies, and deceit, President Nixon made a decision that would destroy his career as a President. The acting and the direction of this film has no faults whatsoever. This film was directed by Ron Howard, I thought he did a more than excellent job with this film. With a subject of this calibre it was important that the film delivered and it definitely did.

The director Ron Howard had previously directed The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13, all three films did very well and generated a lot of interest when released. He has also acted in Arrested Development, Frasier and Happy Days, I feel though that Frost/Nixon is one of the biggest projects he had even with his past experience. He has done so much in TV and he it seems he has learnt a lot from it and it shows in this film. The direction of this film is cleverly done, the scenes are not too long and the information come in bite-size chunks so you can digest them. Parts of them film you could imagine that it would happen exactly like that in real life.

The acting in this film was excellent and was very truthful to the characters, when you can see the real people in the actor’s face then you know the acting is very good. Frank Langella was most impressive because after the film I felt like I knew Nixon, the mannerisms, facial expressions and speech felt so real. I can also imagine that President Nixon was a hard character to play, it look like there was more to him than met the eye, and Langella got that across well. Michael Sheen did well in this film, I like the way at the start of the film his character had a care free attitude and then when he realizes the magnitude of his situation his determination just bursts out. Michael Sheen plays this kind of character well, the film crew did well to pick him for the character.

Watergate scandal is all about a series of American Political scandals in the term of President Nixon which lead to his resignation as President. The scandals started when five men were arrested for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D.C. Investigations took place and it was revealed by the press that the burglary was organized by Nixon and his men, along with other criminal acts including campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper taxaudits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. After two years of mounting evidence it was found out that Nixon had kept recorded conversations, with him discussing criminal acts and trying to cover up the break ins. With this strong evidence against him ten after the information goes public he resigned as the President of the United States.

The story goes further though because although he had resigned the people of USA wanted Nixon to admit to the crimes he had committed. This is where the films starts from, now Nixon was living in his house all alone and he also wanted to be seen as a good person in the eyes of the US people. Then came David Frost who had no experience in political issues but was very successful in terms of TV, and he saw an opportunity to raise his profile by interviewing President Nixon. Nixon got the idea that he could manipulate and use his authority and over-throw Frost to make himself seem he was a good person. It became a battle of wills and through out the film you see the events leading up to interview and the end result.

I really do like the way they deliver this film it is like anything else the back-story is slipped in well and the current story is easy to follow. I imagine the writers had to cut some of the story and I think they did well to decide what info to scrap and keep. The attention to detail in terms of dialogue was very interesting to notice. You could pick many many quotes from this movie. I also recently watched the W. Bush film and compared to this film it is not very good, even on it own. I suppose the film does not have the sincerity that Frost/Nixon, it just captures you and gives you a sense of involvement in the matter. The acting plays a big role to bring out the role of the characters, you feel you are live in the time.

I recommend this film to everyone, because I think it is important for many of us to understand the whole matter and trying to grasp it by other means maybe hard for some. Those that are not fans of book reading then watching this film maybe the best way to understand the matter.